Adopting an RPA framework in the banking industry

In recent years, robotic process automation has gained a lot of popularity amongst corporates. What is robotic process automation? Robotic process automation or RPA can be defined as a technology with the help of which computer systems and robots can mirror the actions of a human being interacting within digital systems, in order to execute and implement a business function. Adopting an RPA framework can help SMEs as well as large corporates to streamline their business operations to be rapider and more efficient.

Benefits of RPA

An RPA framework offers several benefits to corporates as it leverages new-gen technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to emulate and perform repetitive human functions. Why is RPA important? RPA has several advantages including::

Cost efficiency

RPA helps in automating repetitive tasks performed by humans. This, in turn, assists in reducing costs as human resources can focus on core functions and companies can operate with smaller teams.

Improved customer experience

Customer delight depends upon providing a consistently superior customer experience across all touchpoints of the end-to-end customer journey. By adopting RPA, customer service executives can concentrate on core business functions as robots take over repetitive and/or low importance activities.

Reduce operational risk

Overworked human resources are prone to making errors. With RPA, robots can replace humans in performing daily activities, thereby eliminating the chances of human errors thereby reducing operational risk.

Improved internal processes

RPA is ineffective without proper rules and policies. Once a company implements robotic process automation, they need to create standardized policies, which helps in improving all internal processes and activities.

What is RPA in banking?

RPA in banking refers to the automation of tedious human activities in the banking industry. This is done by combining robotic process automation with artificial intelligence. Common functions that are automated in the banking industry include data entry, customer service activities, account maintenance, trial balancing, account reconciliation and more. The banking industry usually has several tasks which are time-consuming, non-core and repetitive. Using artificial intelligence and RPA to automate these functions results in employees having more time on hand which they can dedicate to core functions linked to revenue generation and cost optimization.

What are the benefits of RPA in banking?

As mentioned earlier, the banking industry includes several routine functions which can easily be automated. Depending upon manual intervention, with respect to the abovementioned banking functions, can result in major human errors which can even lead to banking fines being imposed. RPA helps in keeping track of essential and non-essential functions which might be missed by humans. Some of the major benefits of RPA in the banking industry include:

Superior customer service

Customer retention in any industry, including the banking industry, depends upon providing a superior customer service at every stage of the customer journey. When it comes to banks, this is of vital importance as banks receive multiple money-related queries every day which must be resolved within a short turnaround time. Even in today’s automated world, most banks use human resources for query resolution. With RPA, banks can use artificial intelligence and chatbots to identify repeated customer queries and respond to them in real-time with appropriate and effective responses. In addition, RPA also comes with NLP capabilities which can be used by bots to respond in a human-like manner, thereby improving customer experience.

Compliance with legal regulations

Any industry that deals with large quantities of money and financial resources on an everyday basis must be governed and regulated by strict laws. This is also the case for the banking industry. The banking industry in India is governed by the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999. Similarly, banks in every country are governed by several legal regulatory bodies. Banks that fail to comply with legal requirements end up paying hefty fines. RPA in banking ensures that every law is being followed by banks while they conduct their operations.

Enhance staff efficiency

Gone are the days when banks were notorious for having slow and inefficient resources. Implementing RPA can help in enhancing staff efficiency by automating repetitive daily activities which can take up a large amount of time. Staff members can concentrate their efforts on important KPIs which directly contribute towards the profitability and revenue generation of the bank. In addition, implementing an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot is much more cost-effective as compared to hiring human resources. An initial investment in RPA can help in long-term cost optimization, enhancing overall efficiency and driving profitability.

RPA in banking is no longer a foreign concept. Several banks have adopted RPA to optimize their costs and operations, while improving the service that they provide to their customers, boost their profit figures and reach their strategic and organizational goals. RPA is a technology that can be easily implemented in different scenarios to achieve the desired results. Where can RPA be used in banks? Banks can use RPA in the following circumstances:

Credit Card Processing

Over the last few years, more and more people are using credit cards, over cash and debit cards. Banks receive hundreds of credit card applications every day. Banks need to conduct an in-depth investigation of customer data before they can validate the information and approve the credit card. This usually takes several days. RPA, on the other hand, can use certain predetermined rules and regulations to validate the information and approve or disapprove the credit card applications.

Account Closure

Opening a bank account usually involves the submission of multiple documents and information. In several cases, customers fail to submit such documents on time, resulting in banks having to close their accounts. Account closure is a time-consuming but non-essential task which takes up a vast amount of time of bank employees. With RPA, banks can automate the account closure process, thereby saving their time.

Know Your Customer

Know your customer or KYC has been made mandatory by financial institutions for bank customers when they want to open a new bank account or operate an old one. Filling the KYC form is important to ensure that all account holders are law-abiding and are dealing in completely legal money. RPA has helped in streamlining the KYC procedure. With RPA, banks can easily validate all customer information by comparing the data against the customer’s previous financial records, all within a short turnaround time.

With innumerable advantages and use-case scenarios, RPA in the banking industry is here to stay! Banks that implement RPA can drive their internal processes to be more effective and boost revenue generation. Know more about our RPA solutions, get in touch with us!